The committee said it expected the programme to take another two months to complete, and that it would keep scale of the programme under review.

David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: "Following last month's welcome decision to increase quantitative easing to £175bn, we are not surprised that the MPC has chosen to persevere with the current programme and keep interest rates at 0.5pc.

However, he said "persistent weakness in lending to businesses, particularly to small firms", posed "serious risks to the early signs of economic recovery".

"As a temporary measure, the MPC should consider cutting the interest rate paid on deposits kept by commercial banks at the Bank of England, and in some circumstances make this rate negative. This might discourage hoarding of cash and encourage the banks to lend more."

Last month the MPC surprised the market by increasing its the total amount it plans to spend on QE by £50bn to £175bn, despite a wave of positive economic news in the preceding weeks.

Even more surprising was the revelation from the minutes of the meeting that Mervyn King, the Bank’s governor, had actually been defeated by colleagues in his attempt to extend QE by £75bn to £200bn.

It suggested that he remains very cautious about the prospects for the British economy, after emphasising on several occasions that there is no guarantee a recovery will either be strong or sustained.

Following Mr King’s vote in favour of more QE last month, there is mounting expectation that the MPC could extend the programme further to coincide with its next Inflation Report in November.

Last weekend Gordon Brown and G20 finance ministers said that if stimulus measures were removed too early, before a recovery was fully underway, it could risk a relapse.

The minutes for today's meeting will be published on Wednesday, September 23, 2009.